English 4 - Examples of practice in Prep/Year 1



Aligning curriculum, pedagogies and assessment - An example of practice in Prep/Year 1Play-based learning/Direct instruction - ‘Fiddle bags and handwriting’Australian Curriculum – EnglishOur Students - Working together to ensure that every day, in every classroom, every student is learning and achievingThis is an example of how one teacher incorporated play-based learning and direct instruction when implementing the Australian Curriculum English learning area in a Prep/Year 1 classroom.In response to Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) data related to the Physical health and wellbeing domain, the teacher merged direct instruction and play-based learning to implement learning experiences providing opportunities for the young learners to build a sense of wellbeing by using and extending fine-motor skills when integrating movements and manipulating equipment, tools and objects.It should be noted that, although this play-based learning and direct instruction example occurred as discrete, weekly lessons across the year, fine-motor opportunities were embedded in learning across each week.On one afternoon per week, the young learners were able to play with Fiddle bags. These Fiddle bags could be used independently, in pairs, or small groups of three learners. The bags were labelled according to the number of users. There were enough bags for each young learner in the class of twenty-five to access. The bags contained both open-ended and commercial materials to support motor skill development for fingers, wrists, hands, lower and upper, arms and shoulders, in particular:strength building, accuracy and control of movements when manipulating tools, objects and materialsrefinement of visual perceptual skills,refinement of hand-eye and tracking coordination skills.(Adapted from Early Years Curriculum Guidelines, The State of Queensland 2006, p. 66).After approximately thirty minutes of manipulative play with the Fiddle bags, the young learners came together as a class group. During this time they participated in a whole class explicit instruction lesson on letter formation, using the learning object, Write on. This Department of Education and Training resource was accessed through the Staff Learning Place.These direct instruction learning experiences followed the sequence of the school’s handwriting program.Curriculum intent - What do my students need to learn?Australian Curriculum – EnglishThe English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating, including the development and consolidation of a handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic, and that supports sustained writing.Foundation (Prep) Year Content Descriptions (as applicable to this play-based learning/direct instruction)LiteracyProduce some lower case and upper case letters using learned letter formations (ACELY1653)adopting correct posture and pencil griplearning to produce simple handwriting movementsfollowing clear demonstrations of how to construct each letter (for example where to start; which direction to write)learning to construct lower case letters and to combine these into wordslearning to construct some upper case lettersFoundation (Prep) Year Achievement StandardProductive modes (speaking, writing and creating)By the end of the Foundation year, students [ ] correctly form known upper- and lower-case letters.Year 1 Content Descriptions (as applicable to this play-based learning/direct instruction)LiteracyWrite using unjoined lower case and upper case letters (ACELY1663)using correct posture and pencil griplearning how each letter is constructed including where to start andthe direction to followwriting words legibly using unjoined print script of consistent sizeYear 1 Achievement StandardProductive modes (speaking, writing and creating)By the end of Year 1, students [ ] use capital letters and full stops and form all upper- and lower-case letters correctly.Sequencing teaching and learning - How do I teach it?Achieving range and balance The teacher’s role in guiding and facilitating learning experiences is critical and needs careful consideration. It involves deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful decision making and actions on the part of the teacher to promote young learners’ innate drive for independent learning. Learning in the early years needs to have range and balance. Periods of classroom activity should be spent with a balanced approach of planned and spontaneous, as well as adult-guided and child-initiated learning experiences to provide young learners with the necessary pedagogical support they require. It is the teacher’s responsibility to teach young learners about their roles in different pedagogies in order to co-construct learning and scaffold their involvement in a range and balanced approach of planned and spontaneous, adult-guided and child-initiated learning experiences. Approach Play-based learning/Direct instructionPractices*Manipulative playManipulative play developed control and strength in the young learners’ fingers and hands. Manipulative play fostered through the use of the Fiddle bags included using puzzles, threading, play dough, blocks, finger puppets, construction sets and dressing dolls.Use of technologyWhile all of the young learners were assembled at the interactive whiteboard for engagement with the Write on online handwriting program, a small group practised their Write on skills on a class set of tablets. These young learners were chosen by the teacher in response to their particular handwriting needs (for example, building strength, accuracy and control of movements). All other class members chose to use either individual whiteboards and whiteboard markers or clipboards, crayons, pencils and pens.*These are examples of a repertoire of practices implemented, and not intended as a finite list.Strategies*Provision of open-ended resourcesUsing non-traditional, open-ended resources, including dress-ups, cutlery and natural materials, was beneficial for those young learners not interested in conventional fine motor experiences, or those who may have been self-conscious of their fine motor abilities.Provision of targeted resourcesTargeted resources, including commercially purchased materials, allowed for the teacher to provide experiences that were aimed at achieving specific teaching goals.Provision of targeted ICT resourceProviding access to ICT resources created high-interest play and learning opportunities for the young learners. The ICT resources removed barriers to learning experienced by some young learners, making it meaningful and relevant.*These are examples of the strategies implemented, and not intended as a finite list.Characteristics of age-appropriate pedagogies evident in this example of practiceThe possibilities for innovative teachers to create learning experiences informed by their understanding of pedagogies are almost endless. What is needed, however, is a set of characteristics to guide the selection and development of these learning experiences. These characteristics do not relate to every learner, learning context or desired outcome, nor do they all need to be present within any given learning experience. Instead, they represent a set of desirable qualities that educators can consider when attempting to work with children and colleagues to be responsive to the individual child, context and purpose of learning.Active: Requiring physical and embodied engagement across all areas of learning. Whether this is indoors or outdoors, activity is essential in order to activate children’s full potential. Their focus, concentration, motivation and self-regulation are enhanced through moving, doing and interacting within a range of learning environments.Explicit: Making conscious for both learner and educator the relationships between the learning purpose and processes employed and the skills and understanding these processes support.Learner focused: Recognising that all children learn in different ways and that learning is a highly individualised process. They also acknowledge differences in children’s physical, intellectual, cultural, social and personal experiences and perspectives.Playful: Encouraging children to make connections through imagination and creativity to explore alternate worlds and ways of thinking. These worlds, not bounded by reality, offer the freedom children need to innovate and enact new possibilities.Scaffolded: Including such actions as modelling, encouraging, questioning, adding challenges, and giving feedback, provide the support needed to extend children’s existing capabilities. Effective scaffolding by both educators and other children provides active structures to support new learning; it is then progressively withdrawn as learners gain increasing mastery.The young learners’ engagement with the Fiddle bags was active, enhancing the learning through moving, doing, and interacting with a range of hands-on resources. The young learners were made conscious of the relationship between engaging with the Fiddle bags and the manipulative play, and the impact that this would have on their handwriting development. The use of the Fiddle bags and ICT resources, recognised that learning occurs in different ways and is a highly individualised process. The manipulative play allowed the young learners the freedom they needed to innovate and enact new learning. The play-based learning and explicit direct instruction was scaffolded through modelling, encouraging, adding challenges and providing feedback.Assessment - What do my students already know? How well do they know it?Assessment for learning: enabling teachers to use information about learner progress to inform their teaching, including anecdotal notes, photographs, handwriting samplesAssessment as learning: enabling learners to reflect on and monitor their own progress to inform their future learning goals, including peer feedback on letter formationAssessment of learning: there was no summative assessment task attached to this play-based learning/direct instructionMaking judgments - How will I know how well my students have demonstrated the Achievement Standard?Although there was no summative assessment task attached to this play based learning/direct instruction, by monitoring learning through the use of assessment for and as learning, and providing feedback to the young learners, decisions could be made by the teacher relating to what:the young learners knew and understoodstrengths, misconceptions and misunderstandings were evidentwere the next steps for learning.Feedback - What do my students already know? What do my students need to learn? The teacher used anecdotal notes, photographs and handwriting samples to inform feedback.The feedback provided the young learners with progress on their learning to date (Nate, I noticed that you are using your thumb and pointer finger to firmly grip the mini-bots), and gave specific information about what to do next (Remember that this is great practice for holding your pencil firmly between your thumb and pointer).Ongoing, informal verbal feedback was given during Fiddle bag and handwriting sessions, as appropriate to this play-based learning and direct instruction.Questions for reflectionQuestions for teacher-based reflectionHow is an array of effective pedagogies ensured?How are holistic development and academic goals balanced?How is a balance between child-initiated and adult-initiated learning experiences fostered?How are positive personal relationships with children nurtured?How is playfulness in learning and teaching interactions embedded?How are high-quality, verbal interactions encouraged?How are interactions to scaffold cognitive challenge and develop higher order thinking incorporated?How are real-life, imaginary, spontaneous and planned experiences integrated?Questions for teacher-based reflectionHow is the provision of training, resources and support considered?How are the professional demands on teachers, and the lead-in time required to establish new approaches, recognised and supported? ................
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